Norm Thompson's Sahalie catalog will be one of the first U.S. books for which part of the circulation is printed on paper made from a combination of recycled fiber and virgin fiber certified to meet the Forest Stewardship Council's standards for environmentally appropriate forest management practices.
A company spokesman made the announcement this week.
The paper is part of paper manufacturer Domtar's new EarthChoice line of 13 socially and environmentally responsible papers.
Derek Smith, Norm Thompson's director of communications, said it is “extremely rare” to find a high-grade paper that combines recycled fiber made from post-consumer waste with virgin fiber that meets FSC standards.
FSC is a nonprofit organization that sets internationally recognized forest management standards and is endorsed by environmental groups such as Rainforest Alliance and ForestEthics.
Norm Thompson has used FSC-certified paper that had no PCW-recycled content for sale books.
“It only worked for special publications because the grade wasn't up there,” Smith said.
The new EarthChoice paper being used for Sahalie contains 20 percent PCW-recycled content. Of the remaining 80 percent virgin content, 30 percent is FSC-certified. Quality issues have been overcome.
The paper will be used for the roughly 35 percent of Sahalie's circulation that is printed on offset presses and for the order forms in all of Norm Thompson's catalogs, which include Sahalie, Norm Thompson and Solutions.
Domtar offers no EarthChoice papers for gravure presses, which is how Norm Thompson prints most of its circulation.
In the late 1990s, Norm Thompson partnered with Environmental Defense to devise a plan for increasing the recycled content in its catalogs.
Chantal Todé covers catalog and retail news and BTB marketing for DM News and DM News.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
